Gov. Perry stepped over line on HPV

Published: Tuesday, February 13, 2007

LAST SUMMER, we applauded the medical breakthrough of a new vaccine specifically approved to prevent certain strains of cervical cancer. We asked, rhetorically: Who would be against that? But we also conceded some moms and dads wouldn't want their child vaccinated, as is their prerogative.

Now, Gov. Rick Perry has issued an executive order mandating that all girls in the sixth grade receive the Human Papilloma Virus vaccine beginning in the fall of 2008. This is a bad idea, and here's why:

n Gov. Perry overstepped the line by usurping a health care decision properly belonging to parents, not a paternalistic Big Brother.

n Parents must apply for their child to be exempted from taking the shot. It should be the other way around. Parents should have to apply to have their child vaccinated.

n "The effectiveness or dangers of this vaccine will not be known for at least a decade," according to Steven F. Hotze, M.D., president of both the Conservative Republicans of Harris County and the Conservative Republicans of Texas.

n Debate is raging over whether the order is driven by political cronyism and a hard-lobbying drug company's hunger for profits or is simply good public policy. Public perception favors the former.

There's no question Merck, the pharmaceutical manufacturer, worked hard to make the Texas mandate a reality. It doubled its lobbying budget in the state, donated $6,000 to the governor's re-election campaign, and employed a former Perry chief of staff to make its case to the Legislature, reported the Associated Press.

The good public policy argument is weakened considerably when you consider Merck & Co. stands to make billions of dollars should other states follow Texas' lead.

Unless the Texas Legislature overrides the current mandate, girls entering the sixth grade in September 2008 will have to get Gardasil, Merck's new vaccine against strains of HPV.

Parents who want to apply for an exemption on religious or philosophical grounds must request an affidavit for each child. The address is: